Herculaneum
Decumanus Maximus North Side.

Partially
excavated 1961-1968, but already found and explored by tunnels in the 1700’s.

According
to Guidobaldi, on the north side of the roadway one can see the front of more
floors of a block not yet fully excavated, occupying the ground floor were
shops closed by folding doors of charred wood and on the mezzanine
levels above were the rooms for living in.

In
one of these workshops, a large quantity of edibles (figs, dates, locust beans
(carrube),
lentils and shelled beans) were uncovered,

Instead,
in another, a box of glass vases/jugs from a
workshop in Pozzuoli of P. Gessius Ampliatus, still
wrapped in straw and in fabric/material, and produced in 79AD. were found.

Maiuri
wrote “But the shops, better equipped with crockery and foodstuffs are on the
other side of the road under the portico, where because the houses on the top
of the escarpment still overhang these, we had only permission for a partial
exploration, having to leave the rest for the transfer of tenants into their
newer homes that are being set up in an area for slum clearance.

That
day, we explored the mezzanine floor of a shop, one of those mezzanines that
were used for accommodation and storage, being part and parcel of the shop on
the ground floor; and I recall on the bench of the bronze-worker, the first
fruit of that exploration: a basket of figs, dates, locust beans, and a nice
pile of lentils and beans, shelled and halved, as one sells even today.”

Decumanus Maximus West end

Decumanus
Maximus, Herculaneum. August 2013. Looking east from four-sided Arch on
Decumanus Maximus.

Photo
courtesy of Buzz Ferebee.

In
September 1961, Maiuri wrote “After a few weeks I found and finally opened the
street of the Forum of Herculaneum and it seems to me that the city has
regained its breath and found its natural centre of life........etc.A great roadway closed to carriages and
beasts of burden, open only to pedestrians, with low and wide
pavements/sidewalks, ample gutters for the disposal of water and a shady
portico for walking in during the hot hours of the day and
also offering a little cool air to us too. It was the large street of
the ancient town that runs today, at a depth of 15 and more metres, parallel to
the roads of present-day Resina.”

Building on north side of the
Decumanus Maximus, doorway numbered 3 to large house, unexcavated.

Photo
courtesy of Michael Binns.

Decumanus
Maximus, Herculaneum, September 2015.

Building
on north side of the Decumanus Maximus, doorways numbered 3.

Wallace-Hadrill
wrote that this was the entrance to the grandest house on the Decumanus Maximus
which still lies unexcavated under the escarpment.

Its
ambitious scale can be seen not only in the impressive brickwork colonnade that
runs along its frontage supporting rooms and balconies above, and in the well-
preserved shutters on the windows, but also in the breadth of its entrance door,
etc.

In
the case of the nameless house north of the Decumanus Maximus we can see a wide
entrance lobby, with benches on either side, leading to the front door – all
that is visible of this are the two wooden door posts on either side.

Decumanus
Maximus number 8

Building on north side of the Decumanus Maximus,
doorway numbered 8, on left, and upper floor above.

Doorway with steps at number 9, is on the right. Photo
courtesy of Michael Binns.

According
to Monteix, “Found in the excavations carried out in the second half of
the 1960’s, on the north-east side of the Decumanus Maximus at Herculaneum, was
a wooden counter in the shop, numbered 8. In its state it is difficult to study.
Indeed, the journals of excavations of this period are absent from the archives
of the Ufficio Scavi or those of the Superintendence
in Naples. None of the pictures taken during this excavation can see its
structure.

Only the imprint of the trace of wood – not preserved
– in a block of eruptive material allows its existence to be established.

A reinforcement at the eastern corner allows us to
assume the presence of an upright framework of quadrangular section on which
planks could have been fixed. The restorations performed at its base preventing
us to determine whether it was a movable furniture.”